Book TalkSteven Gilbar on Actors in Santa Barbara

Chaucer’s Books (3321 State Street) will host local author Steven Gilbar (Little Book of Montecito Actors) for a book talk and signing on Tuesday, April 11 at 6 p.m.

Book Description- Montecito probably has been home to more actors per capita than any place in America. The hardcover illustrated book has capsule biographies of almost 100 actors ranging from some forgotten silent film stars to Hollywood Golden Age personalities such as Robert Mitchum, Kirk Douglas, and Jane Russell to current movie and television performers, including Gwyneth Paltrow, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, and Steve Martin. It is must read for any lover of Santa Barbara and of the movies.

 About the Author-Steven Gilbar has lived most of his life in Santa Barbara. In 1981 he decided to channel his love of reading into a book and somehow was able to convince St. Martin’s Press to publish “The Book Book,” which would be the first of more than twenty-five shamelessly non-commercial volumes he would see published. (The meager royalties from these endeavors forced Gilbar back to lawyers for a couple of decades.) He published several more “book books” before turning to local literary history with “Literary Santa Barbara” co-written with Dean Stewart (for which the Independent honored them as Local Heroes), and “Published & Perished” Santa Writers Remembered” (2021). He founded Speaking of Stories, Santa Barbara’s “page to stage” theater and served on the board of directors of the Friends of the Santa Barbara Central Library, for whom he edited “Library Book” in celebration of the Library’s 50th anniversary. In 2022 he honored all the authors who have lived in Montecito with “The Little Book of Montecito Writers.’ The intention of the new book is to recognize all the talented actors who have had a connection to Montecito.